Hearing Loss Association of Pittsburgh                                                                   June 2009

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Ask the Experts Web Chat June 25, 2009

Hearing Loss Association of America is proud to present live moderated chats, featuring leading experts in hearing loss.  This is your opportunity to ask a question and learn more about hearing loss from leaders in a number of fields associated with hearing loss.

Topic: "Everything you wanted to know about movie, live theater captioning"
Guest Speaker: Nanci Linke-Ellis
Date & Time: June 25, 2009 at 9 PM (Eastern Daylight Time )

Nanci Linke-Ellis has been a lifelong advocate for captions since forming Tripod Captioned Films in 1993, and later, InSight Cinema, a non-profit organization that forged alliances with the major film studios and theatre chains to distribute and promote captioned versions of first-run films to deaf and hard of hearing audiences nationwide. Nanci’s outreach and advocacy efforts have grown to include in two new projects: Captions West, an entity to bring live theatre, opera and all forms of captioned entertainment to the Deaf/Hard of Hearing communities. She has also formed a new company, known as SightLine Media; along with a group of partners to bring an innovative wireless captioning technology designed for deaf and hard of hearing and deaf-blind audiences to market.

Before her entry into the world of film captioning and advocacy, Linke-Ellis began her career in television with diverse production credits and is a member of the Director's Guild of America. She was given the 1982 Silver Award by the International Film and TV Festival in New York for her short on the Fashion Institute of Technology. She served on the Educational Programs Committee for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) Foundation for 15 years. Linke-Ellis is a member of the Motion Picture Industry’s Digital Cinema Initiative’s Committee created to establish captioning standards and a universal file for digital transmission.

Ms. Linke-Ellis is a member of the Entertainment Industry Council and the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation and Women In Film. Linke-Ellis has also served on the FCC Consumer Disability Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

Ms. Linke-Ellis also serves on the advisory boards of VITAC and RAPIDTEXT captioning companies. She has been honored for her efforts in media access and as a captioning advocate 1982 Outstanding Young Women in America, the 1998 Who's Who of Media, the 2001 Academy of American Audiologists with the “Oticon Focus on People” Award. Additionally she was honored by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) in 2001, Tripod in 2002, and the SHHH-CA State Association in 2005 for her work in Media Access.

You can submit a question prior to the web chat:  www.hearingloss.org/askExpert.asp.